Tiffany YürAfter +4 months of slight errors and just generally not knowing enough of the game it's nice to see it's possibly possible to get at least double elite on a good Cobra Mk 3. It's just heck of a lot slower than with better ships. For trade elite you'll probably need at least a good Type six. Takes of course much longer than with Type 7. There is no rush for me anymore, as long as I keep out of certain combat instances and engineering and thargoid stuff. If you want to rush things and fight PvP or Thargoids by all means grind the best weapons and ships, but the societal stuff is becoming interesting for me. Try to do some stupid things without dying might be enough for me for a long time.
I got triple elite without ever buying a ship. I only used the Sidewinder that I was given free at the start. It took about 350 hrs, most of which was combat.